October 11, 2008

Python found after 3000+ km underneath a car

Filed under: Animals,Automobiles by Branko Collin @ 10:33 am

A male Royal Python, a popular pet, travelled more than 3,000 kilometre in its owner’s car, hidden underneath the mudguard after having escaped from the house half a year ago. After Raymond Oosterbroek from Deventer had traded in his car, car salesman Marten van Kastel of Tonny Keijzers’ in Apeldoorn went to take photos of the Volvo S40 for their website. That’s when he discovered the snake. “At first I saw something brown, then noticed that it was a snake’s head, then suddenly I saw it move. It gave me quite a scare,” he told Telegraaf.

The python escaped half a year ago with its female mate. The female got no further than the bread basket, the male was luckier, at first. The stay underneath the car emaciated it fairly. The people from the car shop managed to drive it into a barrel, and from there into the arms of its owner.

Photo: a Royal Python by j4yx0r, some rights reserved.

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October 10, 2008

Dutch designers in London

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 7:40 am

Bright.tv caught up with Dutch designers (video, mostly Dutch) who had stayed in London after finishing their studies at the Royal College of Art. Among them Henny van Nistelrooy who made this table out of cloth.

Photo via Dezeen.com.

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October 8, 2008

Biggest foul mouths on the web

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 7:20 am

The Dutch are the worst foul mouths on the web in Europe according to a report (Dutch) by Christian daily Trouw (literally Loyalty). Germans enter comment threads of news sites with “dear Madam slash Sir,” the French don’t shy away from harsh language, but always reasoned, and the British pepper their comments with humour. The Dutch on the other hand are less sophisticated. They wish to ram their fists up the prime minister’s and the state budget up his replacement’s behind, to have the army rape Moroccan kids and to send “the Jews” to, er, the quiet province of Drenthe.

I didn’t get that last one either.

According to NoviaFacts, a company that moderates comments for newspaper De Telegraaf, some articles generate such bile that only about 10% of the comments can be published. The Dutch are too negative, says NoviaFacts’ CEO Claudia van der Laan: “Even when Anky van Grunsven wins a golden medal during the Olympics you still get people who say ‘Oh look, it’s horse face again.'”

Via Bright (Dutch). Related articles “Schelden op nieuwssites typisch Nederlands” and “In andere landen zijn andere ‘uitlaatkleppen’” (both Dutch). Photo of and by Jason Cartwright, some rights reserved.

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October 4, 2008

New Brueghel (the Younger) discovered

Filed under: Art,History by Branko Collin @ 11:25 am

Hot on the heels of a recent discovery of a Frans Hals painting comes the news that a painting of Pieter Brueghel The Younger was unearthed last Sunday in Enschede. Writes the Guardian:

It cost the equivalent of £560 when it was snapped up in a Dutch flea market almost 50 years ago. Now the owner of a small round painting of two peasants has been told she owns an unknown work by the 17th-century Flemish artist Pieter Brueghel the Younger.

The owner took it to experts on the Dutch TV show Between Art and Kitsch, similar to the Antiques Roadshow. They immediately recognised the importance of the signed, 16cm-wide picture of a farmer and his wife resting next to a tree, valuing it at €80,000 to €100,000 (£63,000 to £79,000).

The painting was discovered during a recording of Tussen Kunst en Kitsch at the Rijksmuseum Twenthe in Enschede. The round panel from 1620 depicts a couple of farmers resting near a tree after harvest. Broadcaster AVRO reports that the signature is applied to the stem of the tree and can be read from top to bottom. The show’s expert of old paintings, John Hoogsteder, notes that the way the paint has risen because of the shrinking of the wooden makes him sure that it’s an original. AVRO will broadcast the episode with the Brueghel discovery sometime in March.

Pieter Brueghel the Younger was a Flemish painter best known for copying his famous father’s works.

Photo: detail.

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October 3, 2008

Students give back 300 traffic signs

Filed under: Gadgets by Branko Collin @ 8:04 am

No student house is complete without a traffic sign lifted without permission during a drunken late-night ramble. Or so I have heard.The Groningen police seem to think that traffic signs belong on the street (not everyone in the North agrees with them) and started a campaign to get the signs back. The result: 300 traffic signs were returned by “students and other citizens,” and 23 shopping carts to boot.

The campaign is now over, and the police say that they will hold checks in the near future based on tips and their own information, and will fine the owners of any traffic signs they might unearth. It’s not clear from the article how they will do that without search warrants.

Photo: Politie Groningen.

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October 1, 2008

Punching bag emits light the more you hit it

Filed under: Art,Design by Branko Collin @ 7:46 am

Stella Boess and Stefan Gross came up with this light emitting punching bag called Love Hate Punch and won the Frits Philips Kunstprijs of the Museum Kunstlicht in de Kunst (Artificial Light in Art Museum) in Eindhoven with it. The more you hit the bag, the more light it emits, from deep rage red all the way to soothing bright green.

According to the artists on Gross’ website:

We made this piece because we were tired of the fact that interactive lighting is mostly used to elicit soft, flat emotions. We wanted to provoke the rage that sometimes happens to you in real life. And we wanted to put something in the museum that visitors could not just touch, but that actually invites to intensive physical interaction.

You may remember Stefan Gross from his skull-shaped bird houses, named Rebirdy.

Via Trendbeheer (Dutch).

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September 28, 2008

Cardboard print duvet set

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 10:06 am

These very lifelike quilt and pillow covers aren’t just stylish, they also help the homeless. Part of the proceeds of the Le Clochard set go to SZN, “the foundation for homeless young people in the Netherlands. The income is used to fund housing projects which prioritize supporting young people in finding work or continuing their education.” Depending on the size you pay between 50 and 80 euro per set.

Via BoingBoing.

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September 27, 2008

Record breaking cooking class

Filed under: Dutch first,Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 10:20 am

TV chef Pierre Wind broke a world record last Thursday by teaching somewhere between 382 and 388 people how to make an non-fried egg roll (the numbers vary depending on the source). Among the participants were the Minister of Agriculture, Gerda Verburg, and truckloads of cooking school students. The previous record, 357 participants, was held by competing Dutch TV chef Cas Spijkers. The record attempt was part of De Week van de Smaak (Taste Week, which ends tomorrow).

(Link: Via Misset Horeca (Dutch). Photo of an unrelated Berlin cooking class kitchen by Jana Gumprecht, some rights reserved)

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September 24, 2008

The police and the artwork

Filed under: Art by Branko Collin @ 8:32 am

When guerrilla art becomes official, we need to look to officials for guerrilla art.

Some 250,000 coloured euro cents, weighing 670 kilos, and worth 2,500 euro formed the minted graffiti of Stefan Sagmeister as part of Experimenta Design 2008 in Amsterdam. According to the artist:

After the piece is completely set up we will leave it alone, on the street. We expect the piece to slowly dissolve as people take coins, play with them, alter the design.

This happened sooner than expected. Not everybody was in on the artist’s idea of slow disintegration, and when a neighbour saw somebody with a large bag sampling the artwork, they called the police. The police tried and failed to contact the owner, and then decided to help out further by, er, interacting with the artwork themselves, cleaning the entire square. Somehow the artist, who got his coins back in what can only be described as body bags for art works, hadn’t seen that one coming.

Volunteers had worked for 8 days to spell out the text “Obsessions make my life worse and my work better” in painted cents.

“Vandalism or street art?” asks Bright about the piece. “Police destroys art work,” headlines Francisco van Jole. “Money the police sure can use,” muses Trendbeheer. Anyway, still plenty photos and even videos exist. Amongst them this rather artful one by Anjens, some rights reserved and titled CSI Amsterdam.

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September 22, 2008

Dinner table with built-in marble track

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 12:53 pm

Marbelous is the name of this table with a built-in marble track. Designer Tineke Beunders of the Ontwerpduo studio created it earlier this year. Beunders bases her works on vague childhood memories. I wonder if she mixed up the marble track — which was fun because you got to make it yourself — with the cutting board that had a gravy groove.

Photos: Ontwerpduo. Via Bookofjoe.

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